WHY DO I NEED TO BUY EVERYTHING??

So, what is consumerism? Well, according to Microsoft Bing (my search engine), it is the social and economic ideology that encourages the acquisition and consumption of goods and services, often beyond basic needs, as a means to achieve personal satisfaction and societal progress. Goods and services are often classified into wants and needs, with needs being finite and wants being infinite, basic economics that we all are aware of. Now the problem arrives we start classifying many of the wants as needs and give all we can to satisfy a temporary feeling. We, as consumers, are bombarded with so many options in our daily lives. We want to buy milk from our local supermarket; we head to the milk station and are bombarded with options of brand or type of milk: goat' milk, cow's milk, almond milk, buffalo milk, vegan milk, oat milk, etc. We as consumers have to make a choice now, which we make either by price or our preferences. The problem comes when businesses such as these make you feel like what you bought is not enough; every package suggests the benefits of buying their milk, and while skimming through them, subconsciously our brains are hooked onto the benefits of the milk that we did not purchase as well, and we go, "Hey, the next time, I'll buy this one (the one that you didn't purchase)." But is this actually necessary? If the substitute was not displayed on the racks, this feeling of missing out would have never come, but I am not trying to blame anyone here. It is quite frankly our minds that are making us feel like this, but ultimately our minds job is to analyse the options available and make the best decision out of that, but we have just so many options readily available that it's hard to do so as well. We want to head to a supermarket. Which one? We want milk. What type? We want oat milk. Which brand? Our mind has to skim and scan through everything to make the final decision, and during this process is where we get lost and feel like trying new things and get that feeling of missing out. Now, the problem comes with making you feel that no matter how much you buy, it won't be enough, and this feeling is much emphasised by social media. Scrolling on Instagram, Reels, and TikTok all day makes us view other people's lives, and although it's a great metric for motivation and staying connected, it often disconnects us from real-world scenarios. We see celebrities buying something, and right the next second, we want it. We compare our lives with others, and this happens subconsciously; our subconscious mind is proactive and always listening and registering information.

The way I realised that I fell into this trap was when I got addicted to buying clothes—not clothes in real life, but clothes online. The worst part was that, whenever I had a problem with the clothes i bought online, I bought even more clothes to substitute for the one that i didn't like or it didn't fit. I always excused myself, saying, "I need one for college," "It's my birthday," "It's for winter," or "It'll match this skirt/these jeans." I had bought myself so many clothes that by the middle of the year, I managed to fill 2 whole shelves with just my clothes. I understood the impact of this trigger soon enough, but the damage had already been done. Whenever I get tempted to buy more clothes, I always ask myself, Do I really need this stuff right now? Is there a way I could possibly use one of the clothes that I already have to substitute my thrill of buying more? When we buy something consistently, we chase the feeling, and here I was able to identify that I was chasing the feeling of always having everything put together, the feeling of always making bomb outfits, the feeling of never repeating outfits, the feeling of wearing something new, and seeing how it will look on you. These feelings were temporary, and they had been ignited because I used to see people styling their clothes and thrifting new ones. I wanted to achieve something similar, so I would often find something similar to the cloth they were using or try to get "the vision" and style my clothes similarly. Although that's a great initiative, I had realised that there was no need of doing all this at this point. Why do I always have to style everything? Why can't I just wear what I feel like on that day and look unassembled? Nobody likes to feel like that. Similarly, you can ask yourself the same questions and get rid of the feeling of "needing everything" because not everything is a need; we make it one. One will not be enough, and neither will 10; it's best to just quit feeling that no matter how much you buy, it won't be enough. Mundane lives have now become easily titled as "basic"; being a maximalist with personality and staying up with the "trends" is the only way to make friends and connections nowadays. Always having the pressure to be different and make yourself unique—your style, your taste in music, your bags, your home interior—and not the same basic design as everyone else, is a pressure your subconscious mind puts on you, and it's okay to realise that. Working towards leaving this sensation is just realising and opening your eyes to it first.

The second step is to actually ask yourself if that is what you need and really make an informed decision about your purchase because its either this or you spend it on something more useful and worth the money. Quit crying about how to not get broke by the end of the month, stay woke bffs! Make informed decisions and not improper and hasteful ones that you will regret later. The best way to start by doing so if you're like me - shopping online - is to firstly put whatever you want in the cart then checkout your cart within a few weeks and not days, by this time you have enough time to actually see and review everything and maybe in a few weeks your liking towards something might decrease or you'd want something else less and something else more. Wants and needs change, the best is to wait and make an informed decision from the options available. And finally, remind and tell yourself that YOU DO NOT NEED IT, you want it and can perfectly live without it.